Baseball is an extremely popular pastime the world over. One (1) of the most fundamental and important aspects of the game of baseball is the ability to properly and confidently strike the ball while batting. Posture, motion, angle, height, reaction, and positioning are all critical aspects of proper hitting technique.
While the practice of hitting pitches is a common way to learn the game of baseball, this method provides little feedback to a user regarding their technique. It is difficult to assess and correct problems with hitting posture and technique in such a fast paced situation. Furthermore, it is difficult for a single user to accurately assess their own technique due to lack of perspective and difficulty in concentrating on self-evaluation during the fast paced activity of batting. In addition, consistency in foot placement, technique, bat angle, and the like is generally considered to be paramount to achieving proper form and can be difficult to estimate at the high speeds involved in normal batting practices.
Various attempts have been made to provide devices which help to train a user in batting technique. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,374, issued in the name of Groves, describes an adjustable practice batting tee which allows a user to selectively vary and lock the position of the tee.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,580, issued in the name of Lang, describes a foot position teaching apparatus which provides an adjustable and lockable mechanism for helping a user to achieve consistent foot placement during batting practice.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,384, issued in the name of Hardison, Jr., describes a bat swing guide with an arcuate guide member attached to a vertical support in order to provide rigid resistance and a guiding function to a user during batting motions.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not fully and easily adjustable for various users. Also, many such devices do not provide for a number of different configurations capable of teaching various aspects of batting technique. Furthermore, many such devices do not provide any means for training a user with regards to bat positioning during swing including parallel motioning, angle relative to the tee, height of swing, and the like. Accordingly, there exists a need for an adjustable batting practice tee without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.